1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to health care and, more specifically, to a pill dispensing device and method in which the part of the device which comes into contact with the pills is disposable so as to prevent cross pill contamination.
The device is a disposable columnar insert comprised of a funnel-like ingress aperture for receiving the articles to be counted and dispensed, tapering to a constriction to limit the passageway and diverging out to a cylindrical tube that segregates the tablets/capsules from the counting/dispensing apparatus.
The present invention also provides for an additional element wherein the egress aperture tapers to a smaller cylindrical aperture diametrically conforming to an aperture at the opposing distal end for dispensing the medication directly into a vial.
Pharmacies commonly supply customers and patients with take home medication(s) in prescription vials for holding medication after their visits to the doctor's office. Whenever patients come to the pharmacies with their prescription scripts, they are sometimes in pain and want to take their medication(s) immediately according to the doctor's signa.
Note: Signa (Latin Word) is a term used in writing prescriptions meaning to label the subscription according to the dose, route of administration, and frequency of medication.
Ever since the birth of the pharmacy until now, the traditional tools used to fill the tablet/capsule prescription drug order(s) for the patient are basically the pill counting tray and the spatula. This is a time-consuming task for the pharmacy professionals to manually fill, count and dispense the medication drugs.
As technology has advanced, inventors have created several types of semi-automation and fully robotic automation dispensing systems to replace the traditional method of dispensing drugs. These automated systems have increased productivity and operational efficiency by increasing prescription volume while ensuring accuracy in the dispensing process. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,327 to Pinto, et al. discloses the objects (tablets/capsule prescription drugs in this case) placed on a feeding funnel, falling into a counting module, and being collected in a common removable tray, wherein the objects will ultimately be transferred into prescription vials. The entire process is repeated in filling all prescription order(s). The inventors did not disclose any drug cross contamination issues which can occur during filling, counting, and dispensing.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,006,946 to Williams, et al., discloses a similar invention, but does not emphasize the cross contamination of the pills that were discharged in a common chute at each cycle of filling and counting.
The above mentioned state-of-the-art semi-automation and robotic automation dispensing devices are now becoming the patients' top safety concern. The present invention is useful in helping to resolve the drug cross contamination problem in these new pharmacy environments.
Additional Issues and Concerns
The present invention also provides process improvement using the disposable chute liner on drug filling. The present invention protects against the potential cross contamination that generally occurs during filling, counting and dispensing of a medication, with the debris/dust of previously dispensed medications. Unlike other inventions (such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,018,358 and 5,897,024), this disposable chute liner will ensure that no debris/dust will be scattered in the surroundings during the filling process. All medications (the pill itself includes the debris/dust) using the disposable chute liner are dispensed directly into the patient's medication vial. After each filling of the medication is completed, the disposable chute liner will be discarded thereby preventing the potential for cross drug contamination.
Because of the improvement in the filling process, it is further claimed that using this invention of the disposable chute liner can greatly improve and reduce the potential for cross drug contamination. This resulting will ultimately help to resolve the unknown allergic symptoms caused by potential contamination in these new pharmacy environments.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are other funnel-like device designed for restricting material flow. Typical of these is U.S. Pat. No. 1,408,865 issued to Cowell on Mar. 7, 1922.
Another patent was issued to Ware on Jun. 25, 1935 as U.S. Pat. No. 2,006,036. Yet another U.S. Pat. No. 2,435,033 was issued to Campbell on Jan. 27, 1948 and still yet another was issued on Apr. 19, 1977 to Johnson, et al. as U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,358 and another was issued on Feb. 12, 1991 to Fitz as U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,575.
Another patent was issued on Feb. 12, 1991 to Fitz as U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,575. Yet another was issued to Green on Jun. 16, 1992 as U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,779. Still yet another U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,009 was issued to Herskovitz on Nov. 1, 1994 and another was issued to Kraft, et al. on Apr. 2, 1996 as U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,944.
Another patent was issued on Jul. 29, 1997 to Jensen as U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,481. Yet another was issued to Manning on Feb. 17, 1998 as U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,681. Yet another U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,327 was issued to Pinto, et al. on Jun. 16, 1998 and still yet another was issued on Apr. 27, 1999 as U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,024 to Coughlin, et al. Another was issued to Williams, et al. on Dec. 28, 1999 as U.S. Pat. No. 6,006,946 and still yet another was issued on Jun. 29, 1988 to Brayshaw as U.K. Patent No. GB2198957.